Apple upgrades some 27" non-Retina iMac orders to 5K model following price cut
Some consumers who ordered Apple's top-end, non-Retina 27-inch iMac in advance of Tuesday's iMac lineup shuffle have seen their orders automatically upgraded to the new, less costly Retina 5K base model.
The new $1,999 Retina 5K iMac replaced the older, top-end 27-inch version that was sold for the same price without a Retina-quality display. One commenter on Reddit said that they were notified of the upgrade by Apple via email late Tuesday afternoon.
"You may not have heard, but we just announced the new iMac with Retina 5K display," the message read. "Since your order has yet to ship, we automatically upgraded you to the new iMac with Retina 5K display."
Apple's newest 5K iMac ships with Intel's 3.3-gigahertz quad-core Core i5 and a 1-terabyte hard drie as standard, compared to a 3.4-gigahertz chip and 1-terabyte hard drive for the older model.
Apple revealed its new iMac lineup on Tuesday morning, introducing the new $1,999 model while chopping $200 off the price for the standard high-end Retina 5K configuration. At the same time, the 15-inch MacBook Pro line was refreshed with Force Touch trackpads, faster processors and flash memory, and longer battery life.
The new $1,999 Retina 5K iMac replaced the older, top-end 27-inch version that was sold for the same price without a Retina-quality display. One commenter on Reddit said that they were notified of the upgrade by Apple via email late Tuesday afternoon.
"You may not have heard, but we just announced the new iMac with Retina 5K display," the message read. "Since your order has yet to ship, we automatically upgraded you to the new iMac with Retina 5K display."
Apple's newest 5K iMac ships with Intel's 3.3-gigahertz quad-core Core i5 and a 1-terabyte hard drie as standard, compared to a 3.4-gigahertz chip and 1-terabyte hard drive for the older model.
Apple revealed its new iMac lineup on Tuesday morning, introducing the new $1,999 model while chopping $200 off the price for the standard high-end Retina 5K configuration. At the same time, the 15-inch MacBook Pro line was refreshed with Force Touch trackpads, faster processors and flash memory, and longer battery life.
Comments
And why couldn't Apple wait until WWDC to announce these and the new MacBook Pro?
Is it by hat Apple has so many hit products that they can't announce them all at the event?*
*I know Apple has done this for years but surprise refreshes always seemed weird to me. Especially so close to one of their events.
The new $1999 model has a 3.3GHz i5 processor and the same 1TB HDD, as shown in the image in the post. You're comparing the $2299 configuration to the old $1999 model, if in fact the old one had a 3.4GHz processor.
The old non-Retina had a slightly faster processor. The only thing that is different is the display and the GPU.
They do these types of minor hardware bumps/price adjustments all of the time in between events. The changes aren't significant enough to warrant stage time at WWDC when they probably have a ton of things to cover, from the possible music streaming service, iOS 9, Watch OS and Watch SDK news, possible OS X 10.11, and even Apple TV upgrades or Apple television service.
This means Apple wanted them out of the way.
Some people are surprised by this; remember that Apple introduced the iBook G4 and the white MacBooks by just dumping them on the website too.
I'm confused.
And why couldn't Apple wait until WWDC to announce these and the new MacBook Pro?
Is it by hat Apple has so many hit products that they can't announce them all at the event?*
*I know Apple has done this for years but surprise refreshes always seemed weird to me. Especially so close to one of their events.
I'd say it comes down to logistics. Every major manufacturer orders parts in bulk and under large contracts. I'd bet the contract for the parts for the 'old' iMac simply ran out prematurely and since it was time to renew the order, it simply made more sense to go ahead with the newer components build. The plan all along was to have all of this happen the same week as WWDC, but the order simply happened sooner than expected. Rather than let customers wait again on something new, they got it going early and cam make a big deal about it at WWDC.
We all know Tim Cook is the logistics master of the supply train. I believe the average shelf life of an Apple product is somewhere around the 5 day mark.. which is incredible considering they sell almost a billion products annually. After what was a totally fumbled launch of the Apple Watch & new 12" Macbook, this premature update to the iMac and 15" rMBP seem to underline that Apple is more focused on having newly announced products ready to ship on/before the promised launch date. I'd take this anyday over hearing publicly from droves of frustrated customers who placed pre-orders and have to wait months for actual shipment. I'm one of those customers as it took almost 4 weeks for my launch-day 12" Macbook to ship and I'm still waiting to receive my Apple Watch Sport.
I'm confused.
And why couldn't Apple wait until WWDC to announce these and the new MacBook Pro?
Is it by hat Apple has so many hit products that they can't announce them all at the event?*
*I know Apple has done this for years but surprise refreshes always seemed weird to me. Especially so close to one of their events.
Some people forget that WWDC is a developers conference, not a hardware release trade show. Apple has released some hardware during previous WWDC's but the most important software is always identified during WWDC and released when it's ready. Apple refuses to follow anyone's idea of a "proper" release schedule for anything. Analysts and the media can't handle that because they depend on regular release times for their schedules. Apple doesn't cater to these people, they cater to their customers (whether some people want to believe that or not).
As for upgrading old version iMacs to new ones that haven't shipped, that's good for the customer. The old version stopped being made (at least in bulk) so they get a brand new version without asking. That's actually good customer service.
I'd say it comes down to logistics. Every major manufacturer orders parts in bulk and under large contracts. I'd bet the contract for the parts for the 'old' iMac simply ran out prematurely and since it was time to renew the order, it simply made more sense to go ahead with the newer components build. The plan all along was to have all of this happen the same week as WWDC, but the order simply happened sooner than expected. Rather than let customers wait again on something new, they got it going early and cam make a big deal about it at WWDC.
You don't know this and if you actually work for Apple, saying this could only get you fired. When did Apple announce new or upgraded hardware would be released at WWDC? Apple doesn't do this. Sounds to me like an analyst in waiting.
I'd say it comes down to logistics. Every major manufacturer orders parts in bulk and under large contracts. I'd bet the contract for the parts for the 'old' iMac simply ran out prematurely and since it was time to renew the order, it simply made more sense to go ahead with the newer components build. The plan all along was to have all of this happen the same week as WWDC, but the order simply happened sooner than expected. Rather than let customers wait again on something new, they got it going early and cam make a big deal about it at WWDC.
We all know Tim Cook is the logistics master of the supply train. I believe the average shelf life of an Apple product is somewhere around the 5 day mark.. which is incredible considering they sell almost a billion products annually. After what was a totally fumbled launch of the Apple Watch & new 12" Macbook, this premature announcement seems to underline that Apple is more focused than ever on having newly announced products ready to ship on/before the promised launch date. I'd take this anyday over hearing publicly from droves of frustrated customers who placed pre-orders and have to wait months for actual shipment. I'm one of those customers as it took almost 4 weeks for my launch-day 12" Macbook to ship and I'm still waiting to receive my Apple Watch Sport.
agreed with the underlying premise.
The key items are
1) nothing [really] new here... just tweaks performance and price.
2) Supply chain... once the cost of of maintaining a sku and subordinate parts is higher than the cost of the replacement item... pffft... it's gone. Apple just doesn't keep stuff in the product catalog because... especially if it requires ordering a new supply order.
3) if this was 'nothing new' you got to wonder what will be filling the 60-90 minutes in the Keynote.
The Apple Ecosphere is big now... between Apple Pay, Watch, Swift, force touch, Metal, Healthkit, HomeKit, let alone networking, TV, phones, pods, pads, macs, etc. etc. etc.... getting rid of the noise now is good
3.1) if the flag ship developer device performance upgrade is 'just' a press release, that indicates a good thing
They should probably have asked if the customer wanted the free upgrade. You just know someone, somewhere will be upset by this ...
The model that is being substituted does not have a faster processor.
The new $1999 model has a 3.3GHz i5 processor and the same 1TB HDD, as shown in the image in the post. You're comparing the $2299 configuration to the old $1999 model, if in fact the old one had a 3.4GHz processor.
The old non-Retina had a slightly faster processor. The only thing that is different is the display and the GPU.
hmmm, they didn't upgrade the processors to Broadwell? Wow, guess Intel must really be behind on the desktop processor production.
Some people forget that WWDC is a developers conference, not a hardware release trade show. Apple has released some hardware during previous WWDC's but the most important software is always identified during WWDC and released when it's ready. Apple refuses to follow anyone's idea of a "proper" release schedule for anything. Analysts and the media can't handle that because they depend on regular release times for their schedules. Apple doesn't cater to these people, they cater to their customers (whether some people want to believe that or not).
As for upgrading old version iMacs to new ones that haven't shipped, that's good for the customer. The old version stopped being made (at least in bulk) so they get a brand new version without asking. That's actually good customer service.
Yeah, and these are pretty minor tweaks. Not Apple bragging worthy, but staying currently until a serious redesign/upgrade is available to show off.
I think they are Broadwell, so the lower clock speed may be a wash.
That is one expensive monitor.
Unlike the non-Retina iMacs, the current Retina models can't be used as monitors since they don't have TDM (Target Display Mode).
Those who intentionally ordered a non-Retina iMac for this capability or those who prefer the ability to gain access to the internals without having to remove and replace adhesive tape might be upset that they got "upgraded".
I normally upgrade my imac after 2 and half years with 6 months to go on the warranty but I think I will pass this year. The new 5k imacs have performance issues, the GPU is not fast enough to drive that resolution. My late 2012 imac with the 680mx is faster than the radeon m290 and m290x. The only GPU faster is the optional m295x on the high end model but it as to drive 4k resolution so this result in a slower machine than my 2012 imac.
I dont like reselling my mac without a leftover warranty but this machine is not worth 3.5k for me with the current configurations. I went to see them at the Apple store and with the fusion drive, i7 option, m295x option is just to expensive. Put that in canadien with tax and that thing is $4000 and the only upgrade I would get is the screen compare to my 2012 machine.
Why anyone would buy an iMac with a traditional spinning HDD is beyond me.
After decades of development, they've proven inexpensive, reliable, spacious, and fast enough for many applications. Mechanical drives still have quite a bit of life left in them before they are made completely obsolete in every aspect by SSDs.